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Thursday, April 19, 2012

Just thought that I would POP by here to share with you this extremely easy recipe for homemade Pop-tarts! I don't know anyone who doesn't love Pop-tarts- they are classic! In fact one my friends said that Pop-tarts are her kryptonite! haha!

People are always impressed when you make something from scratch that is generally bought at the store in a box... they are even more impressed when the homemade goodies taste better than the store-bought-boxed-goodies. Pop-tarts are no exception to this rule! They are easy to make, the look cute, and are delicious... so please give them a try!

POP-TARTS

crust:

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt (scant tsp)

1 cup shortening/lard/butter whichever you prefer

1/2 cup cold water

filling:

homemade jam: strawberry, blueberry or whatever you fancy

*I think that nutella would be marvelous as a filling

icing:

powdered sugar

water

method:

Stir salt into flour.

Cut shortening into flour till its pea size.

Gradually pour the water around the edges and across the top.

Add enough water till its just a little sticky.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and gently work it into a ball. Do not knead it! If you overwork pie crust dough it will not turn out!

Place the dough ball back into the bowl and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Once the dough is chilled, place on a lightly floured surface and roll out into a rectangle or square shape. Next, using a pizza cutter or butter knife cut the dough into rectangles or squares. Make them double the size you want the actual Pop-tart to be.

*I made mine to be mini pop-tarts. Some were 3x5 and some were 2x4.

After you've cut out the Pop-tart shapes put a tablespoon or so of jam on one side of the pop-tart. Fold the pop-tart in half. Next take a fork and crimp all the edges so that the jam won't ooze out while its baking. After you've crimped the edges take a toothpick and poke a bunch of holes in the top of the pop-tart. Place on an un-greased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remember that the baking time will depend on how big or small you made your pop-tarts. For the size mine were, 12 minutes was great!

While the pop-tarts are cooling, you can make the icing. This is so easy. Put about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl and stir it with a whisk or fork to get the lumps out. Next add small amounts of water to the powdered sugar until you get it to the consistency you like. If its too think, add more water. If its too runny, then add more powdered sugar. Easy as that!

Once the pop-tarts are cool, drizzle the icing over each one. While the icing is still wet sprinkle some rainbow jimmies on them.

****helpful hint**** I had two different jams- homemade strawberry and store bought blueberry. I found that the strawberry jam tasted better but some of it ended up oozing out of the pop-tarts. I think this could have been helped if I had've added a little bit of cornstarch to the jam prior filling the pop-tart with it. The blueberry jam did not taste as good, but it was thicker than the strawberry so it did not ooze out. Anyway, do some experimenting and ENJOY! You can really mess these up! :-)